Le Bocal
Hidden in the back of a fish store (it's right across form the city's fascinating covered market), Le Bocal is a surprisingly genteel place to take a meal. Once you head past the display cases, with fresh catches proudly laid on piles of ice, and up the industrial-looking stairway, you'll find yourself in a light-flooded, dove-grey tea room and you'll be seated at a little marble-topped table for your feast. Though there's no English-language menu, and the choices are usually extensive (raw bar items, seafood patés, grilled dishes, bouillabaise, paellas), at least one of the staff speaks excellent English and will walk you through all the choices. Le Bocal is known, especially, for its oysters, both in the raw with a house-made mignonette sauce and the cooked preparations, so don't leave without getting some of those. Follow your bivalves with one of the excellent seafood patés and then a grilled cut of fish, done very simply, but with just the right amount of char and lemon, and sided by a mix of fresh seaweed and new potatoes.
Hidden in the back of a fish store (it's right across form the city's fascinating covered market), Le Bocal is a surprisingly genteel place to take a meal. Once you head past the display cases, with fresh catches proudly laid on piles of ice, and up the industrial-looking stairway, you'll find yourself in a light-flooded, dove-grey tea room and you'll be seated at a little marble-topped table for your feast. Though there's no English-language menu, and the choices are usually extensive (raw bar items, seafood patés, grilled dishes, bouillabaise, paellas), at least one of the staff speaks excellent English and will walk you through all the choices. Le Bocal is known, especially, for its oysters, both in the raw with a house-made mignonette sauce and the cooked preparations, so don't leave without getting some of those. Follow your bivalves with one of the excellent seafood patés and then a grilled cut of fish, done very simply, but with just the right amount of char and lemon, and sided by a mix of fresh seaweed and new potatoes.
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